My Story
My own path to acupuncture began in my early twenties, lost in a fog of anxiety that nothing could lift. During this time, I found Eastern energy practices such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong—venturing to remote parts of China so that I might witness and learn these arts in their native environment. In the end acupuncture was the key that truly turned the lock. It didn’t just relieve my anxiety; it gave me a map of my own inner landscape, and with it, a lasting sense of purchase within myself.
That experience shapes my practice. I learned that pain, stress, or disconnection aren’t just meaningless symptoms —they’re the body’s intelligence, crying out for recognition.
My approach is practical. I assess what’s actually there: the stiffness in the tissue, the altered sensitivity along a pathway, the specific points that react. The ancient theory is useful because it describes patterns—patterns of function and dysfunction that are still observable in the body today. A blockage or imbalance creates problems; smooth operation is what we call health.
Treatment is a direct conversation with these patterns. The shifts that follow—a release of tension, a quieted mind, the sudden ability to take a full breath—are the natural response of a system that’s been precisely and practically met.
What is acupuncture?
To place it as succinctly as I know how, acupuncture is a profoundly powerful tool to pivot one’s nervous system into a parasympathetic, relaxed condition from a tense, fight or flight state.
Practically, I have witnessed acupuncture to have an enormously affirmative and supportive influence on a highly diverse range of conditions. As a remedy for acute pains and discomforts, it can often be an adequate intervention to resolve symptoms very quickly. For longer term issues, it can rapidly set to work in alleviating the tension and discomfort so often part-and-parcel of the different expressions of disease, encouraging a sea change into a state of relax and release that assists the body’s natural recovery process.
Is it a placebo effect? - perhaps partly, although growing research around acupuncture practiced on animals, vast volumes of randomised controlled trials from all around the world, alongside a deepened scientific understanding of acupuncture’s impact on the body’s anatomy and physiology, would lead a contemporary, informed opinion to a favourable view of acupuncture as an effective medical intervention.
If 100 people with the same diagnosis were gathered into a room and interviewed, it would promptly be discovered that no two shared an identical experience or felt the same levels of pain. Acupuncture is endowed with the versatility to meet each at the level of their individual perception, providing an objective response to one’s unique subjective condition.